Jayajit Chakraborty
Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He is currently serving as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee, and the EPA Environmental Justice Science & Analysis Review Panel.
About
Email: jchakrab@ucsb.edu
Office: 4520 Bren Hall, UC Santa Barbara
Website: https://bren.ucsb.edu/people/jayajit-chakraborty
Research & teaching interests:
●Environmental justice ●Climate justice ●Vulnerability to hazards and disasters ●Racial/ethnic disparities ●Disability studies ●Health equity ●Food security ●GIScience ●Spatial analysis ●Quantitative Methods
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Google Scholar global ranks:
#1 in Environmental Hazards
#2 in Environmental Inequality
#3 in Urban Environments
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Included in the prestigious Stanford-Elsevier ranking of the world’s most cited researchers and those who are in the top 2% in their academic subfield, based on both career-long citation data and citations from the latest year (2023).
Jayajit Chakraborty is a Professor and Mellichamp Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at UC Santa Barbara. He was previously a Professor in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology and the Founding Director of the Socio-Environmental & Geospatial Analysis Lab at the University of Texas, El Paso. He has also been a Professor in the Department of Geography at the University of South Florida (Tampa, Florida) and a visiting scholar in the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales (Sydney, Australia). He has a M.S. in Urban & Regional Planning and Ph.D. in Geography, both from the University of Iowa.
Dr. Chakraborty is currently serving as a member of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Science Advisory Board, Work Group for Review of Science Supporting EPA Decisions, and the EPA Environmental Justice Science Committee. He is chairing the Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's EJScreen Mapping & Screening Tool and serving as lead discussant/member of the EPA Environmental Justice Science & Analysis Review Panel. He recently served on a National Academies of Sciences Committee that provided recommendations regarding data and tools for meeting the goals of the White House Justice40 Initiative and coauthored a consensus study report titled Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice.
As a broadly trained social scientist, Dr. Chakraborty’s research interests encompass a wide range of concerns related to the social dimensions of environmental and climate change, with an emphasis on environmental justice and community vulnerability to hazards and disasters. His scholarship has examined environmental and social inequalities at multiple geographic scales in the US, US-Mexico border, Australia, and India. His research utilizes a variety of methods, including applications of GIS and spatial statistical techniques, as well as social surveys and mixed methods approaches.
Dr. Chakraborty has published more than 4 books and 120 articles/chapters, including The Routledge Handbook of Environmental Justice and a chapter for the US Government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). He has been a principal/co-principal investigator for over 30 sponsored projects, which include grants awarded by the US EPA, US National Science Foundation (NSF), US Department of Transportation, US Department of Treasury, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, American Association of Geographers, Australian Research Council, and other agencies. Dr. Chakraborty was also a recipient of the University of Texas System Faculty STARs Award and the NSF Geospatial Fellowship for Advancing COVID-19 Research and Education. He is currently an Associate Editor of the journal Environment, Development and Sustainability, and an editorial board member of Environmental Justice and International Journal of Environmental Research & Public Health.
Recent News
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Included in the prestigious Stanford-Elsevier ranking of the world’s most cited researchers and those who are in the top 2% in their academic subfield, for both lists--career-long citation history and top-cited scholars in the latest calendar year (2023).
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Selected to serve as a Member of the Community Health & Environmental Research Initiatives (CHERI) Research Committee of the Health Effects Institute (HEI).
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Invited panelist/speaker for special session on Environmental Justice, Cumulative Impacts, and Environmental Decision-Making at the 10th CEEJH Environmental Justice Symposium, organized by School of Public Health, University of Maryland.
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Coauthor of new National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Consensus Study Report on Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools on Environmental Justice (2024); highlights are available here.
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Coauthor of groundbreaking commentary on advancing disability-inclusive climate research and action, climate justice, and climate-resilient development in The Lancet Planetary Health [impact factor: 25.7].
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Selected to serve as a lead discussant on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)’s Environmental Justice Science and Analysis Review Panel.
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Invited panelist for a session on Forecasting Accessibility Issues in a Changing Environment at the 104th American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, a joint session with the Conference on Applied Climatology and Symposium on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
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Appointed as a Professor and inaugural Mellichamp Chair in Racial Environmental Justice at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
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Received a new NSF Convergence Accelerator Research grant for a collaborative project titled Unraveling the Benefits, Costs, and Equity of Tree Coverage in Desert Cities [Role: Senior Personnel].
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Coauthor of chapter on Built Environment, Urban Systems, and Cities in the Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5) --the US Government’s premier report on climate change impacts, risks, and adaptation.
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Invited speaker/panelist in webinar on Ensuring Disability Inclusion in the Global Climate Action Agenda hosted by the Harvard Law School Project on Disability.
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Invited speaker for Disability Pride Month in the Environmental Science Associates' Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Speaker Series; more information available here.
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Appointed to serve as a member of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) Committee on Utilizing Advanced Environmental Health and Geospatial Data and Technologies to Inform Community Investment and support the White House Justice40 Initiative.
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Selected to serve as Chair of Scientific Review Panel for the EPA's Environmental Justice Screen (EJScreen) Mapping and Screening Tool.
Latest Publications
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Chakraborty J, 2025. “Heatwave Frequency and Disability Status: Thermal Inequities in the U.S. South” Disability and Health Journal, 18(1), 101665; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2024.101665
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Miller H, Tate E, Anenberg, S, Bennett L, Chakraborty J, et al. (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), 2024. Constructing Valid Geospatial Tools for Environmental Justice. The National Academies Press: Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.17226/27317.
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Chakraborty J, 2024. “Racial/Ethnic Disparities in the Distribution of Heatwave Frequency and Expected Economic Losses in the US” Scientific Reports, 14, 17058; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-67760-w.
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Stein PJS, Stein MAS, Groce N, Kett M, Akyeampong EK, P Alford WP, Chakraborty J, et al. 2024. "Advancing Disability-Inclusive Climate Research and Action, Climate Justice, and Climate-Resilient Development, The Lancet Planetary Health, 8, e242-e255. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(24)00024-X.
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Chakraborty J, 2024. “Using Local Indicators of Spatial Association to Analyze the Environmental Justice Implications of Ambient Air Pollution in the United States” Environmental Justice, https://doi.org/10.1089/env.2023.0017.
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Chakraborty J, Grineski S E, Collins T W, and Aun J J, 2024. “Disparities in Adverse Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic by Disability Status in Metropolitan Texas, Journal of Public Health, 46(1), e60-e64. https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdad209.
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Chu E K, Fry M M, Chakraborty J, Cheong S-M, Clavin C, Coffman M, Hondula D M, Hsu D, Jennings V L, Keenan J M, Kosmal A, Muñoz-Erickson T A, and Jelks N T O. 2023. “Chapter 12: Built Environment, Urban Systems, and Cities” In Crimmins, A R, Avery C W, Easterling D R, Kunkel K E, Stewart B C, and Maycock, T K (eds.) Fifth National Climate Assessment (NCA5). U.S. Global Change Research Program: Washington, https://doi.org/10.7930/NCA5.2023.CH12.
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Guo C, Ge E, Lee S, Lu Y, Bassill N P, Zhang N, Zhang W, Lu Y, Hu Y, Chakraborty J, Emeny R T, and Zhang K, 2023. “Impact of Heat on Emergency Hospital Admission in Texas: Geographic and Racial/Ethnic Disparities” Journal of Exposure Science & Environmental Epidemiology, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41370-023-00590-6.
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Chakraborty J, Collins T W, Flores A, and Grineski S W, 2023. “Hurricanes, Floods, and Environmental Inequality” In Long M A, Lynch M J, and Stretesky P B (eds.) Handbook of Inequality and the Environment. Edward Elgar Publishing: Cheltenham, UK; 490-504. https://www.elgaronline.com/edcollchap/book/9781800881136/book-part-9781800881136-41.xml
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Grineski S E, Scott M, Collins T W, Chakraborty J, and Ramos K, 2023. “Anxiety and Depression after Winter Storm Uri: Cascading Disasters and Mental Health Inequities” International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 96, 103933; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2023.103933.
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Chakraborty J, Aun J J, and Schober G S, 2023. “Assessing the Relationship between Emergency Food Assistance and Social Vulnerability during the COVID-19 Pandemic” Applied Spatial Analysis and Policy, 16, 259 - 276. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36059605/
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Chakraborty J, Collins T W, and Grineski S E, 2023. “Disability and Subsidized Housing Residency: The Adverse Impacts of Winter Storm Uri in Metropolitan Texas” Disability and Health Journal, 16(2), 101403; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dhjo.2022.101403.
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Chakraborty J, and Aun J J, 2023. “Social Inequities in Exposure to Traffic-Related Air and Noise Pollution at Public Schools in Texas” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(7), 5308; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20075308.
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Grineski S E, Collins T W, Chakraborty J, Goodwin E, Aun J J, and Ramos K, 2023. “Social Disparities in Power and Piped Water Outages among Metropolitan Texans after Winter Storm Uri” American Journal of Public Health, 113(1), 30-34. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36356281/
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Chakraborty J, 2023. “COVID-19 and People with Disabilities: Social Inequalities in the Distribution of Pandemic Vulnerability” In Carey A C, Green S E, and Mauldin L (eds.) Disability in the Time of Pandemic (Research in Social Science and Disability). Emerald Publishing Limited: Bingley, UK; 15-29. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/S1479-354720230000013002/full/html.